One of the most important components influencing the diversity of tropical forests is the vertical
stratification. Thus, the richness, abundance and composition of the butterfly fauna can be
differentiated in the strata, by their intrinsic relations as the availability of food resources,
amount of sunlight, predation pressure and other climatic factors. The fruit-feeding butterflies
are especially diverse in these forests and sensitive to changes in the environments they inhabit,
responding to the changes that occur in them. In this context, this study investigated the
diversity, richness and abundance of frugivorous species belonging to Nymphalidae in two strata
in the Tapajós National Forest, from December 2011 to November 2012, using traps allocated in
the canopy and understory baited with fermented banana. We evaluated the following
parameters: richness, abundance, dominance, constancy, diversity index and evenness (Shannon
H 'and E') and Berger-Parker dominance (d). The richness estimates were made using the
nonparametric procedures: Bootstrap, Chao1, Chao2, Jackknife1 and Jackknife2. We recorded
1,122 individuals belonging to 90 species, 23 species collected in both strata, 37 exclusively in
the understory and 30 only in the canopy. The richness (S), diversity (H ') and abundance (N)
were, respectively: in the understorey (S = 60, H' = 3.08, N = 668), canopy (S = 53; H '= 3.19; N
= 454). The genus Taygetis was the most abundant in the understory and canopy in Memphis
genus. . Was recorded threatened species Agrias narcissus tapajonus (Fassl, 1921) and richness
estimates showed a collection representative of the total species expected for each stratum. The
results can serve as a basis for strategies for monitoring environmental health and conservation
in the Tapajós National Forest. The richness estimates showed that much of the expected total
species for each stratum was collected.
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